The present invention relates to communications devices and, more particularly, to a novel communications device allowing a hearing-impaired person to receive visual information converted from audible signals transmittable over the telephone network.
Because the telephone system, which allows national and world-wide communication between individuals, normally provides for reception and output of sound energy, a hearing-impaired person has generally been prevented from communication over this network. It has long been a goal to provide some means for providing hearing-impaired individuals with access to telephone transmission of information. One previous approach to providing telephone communications for the hearing-impaired has been through use of equipment such as the typewriter-like encoder/decoder/printers manufactured by the Teletype Corporation. Because such equipment is relatively bulky, relatively expensive and transmits and receives signals of both special type, e.g. frequency-shift-keyed signals, and special coding, e.g. Baudot and the like codes, and also because an encoder/decoder/printer has been required by each of the two or more communicants, this approach has not allowed access to the telephone network by all hearing-impaired persons desirous of acquiring such access. It is therefore highly desirable to provide a device allowing communications between two locations, and providing a conversion of the normal audio signals carried over the telephone network into information of a type available to the senses of the hearing-impaired person; the communications device should be of relatively small size and portability, of relatively low cost, and should only be required for use at that end of the communications circuit at which the hearing-impaired person is situated.